[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 186 (Thursday, December 6, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2514]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF FRANCES MURPHY II

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 6, 2007

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I rise to ask the House of Representatives 
to join the residents of the District of Columbia and thousands of 
Americans throughout the country in thanksgiving for the life of 
Frances Murphy II. The influential Publisher Emeritus of the Washington 
Afro-American newspaper was especially revered in this city and in her 
hometown of Baltimore, where the Baltimore Afro-American is published, 
for coverage that African Americans got nowhere else in the press. 
Frances Murphy's leadership in journalism and publishing and her 
decades of work as a reporter, columnist, and editor were instrumental 
in educating and raising the consciousness of African Americans through 
unfailing investigations and coverage on matters of race that furthered 
the determination of people of all races to struggle against racial 
discrimination. As fearless as she was able, Frances Murphy was the 
scion of the nation's most distinguished African American newspaper 
family, but she insisted on making it to the top the hard way. Ms. 
Murphy rose to the pinnacle of running the family business, but only 
after selling the Afro as a child and submitting pieces for its 
children's section, educating herself at one of the nation's finest 
schools of journalism, becoming an entry-level reporter and then 
learning the business first hand by performing every function until she 
ran the papers. It would be unusual for a woman to become head of a 
newspaper empire today, but Frances Murphy's rise as a pre-feminist 
pioneer was all the more remarkable. Throughout her long and storied 
career, Ms. Murphy became a life long learner, pursuing additional 
degrees and always educating herself. In the process, she applied the 
same standard to the public by insisting on educating all of us. I ask 
my colleagues to join me in celebrating the remarkable life of Frances 
Murphy II.

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